#somewhere it's still the 1st of march i can still make it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mortalityplays · 1 month

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You need more free art.

I quit my job yesterday. Well, actually I quit my job eight weeks ago, but they finally released me yesterday for good behaviour. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do - but I do it for the wrong reasons. Working for major charities, you learn very fast that 'I want to make the world a better place' is a phrase you use to ask people for money, not to give them things. I was an ass-backwards fit for that world.

You need more free art. I need more free art. Everyone has felt the shift in our media landscape over the last ten years, away from access and towards nickel-and-diming the human experience. That lack of access is making life and culture worse for all of us, across the board. Paywalled news sites leave us less informed, attacks on the Internet Archive leave us less capable of research. Algorithmic social feeds and streaming walled gardens trap us inside smaller and smaller demographic bubbles, where we are increasingly only likely to encounter ideas that have been curated for us by marketing departments. Hasty efforts to resist AI commodification have only led to more artists locking their work away and calling for even more onerous systems of copyright law. This is not good for us.

We all need more free art.

So what am I going to do about it?

This is a question I have been asking myself for years. It's easy to sit here feeilng frustrated and thinking 'boy I hope SOMEONE does SOMETHING'. It's harder to take action in a world where I still have rent to pay. But hard doesn't mean impossible. Sometimes hard just means time-consuming, frustrating and slow. And sometimes it's worth doing something time-consuming, frustrating and slow because...I want to make the world a better place.

I'm going to do this:

1. From April 1st, I am relaunching as a freelance writer and editor.

This is the one that will (hopefully) help to pay the bills. I am a very good and experienced editor. I've worked on hollywood movies, I'm a member of the Chartered Institute of Editors and Proofreaders, I have clients who have been coming to me exclusively for more than 10 years.

Alongside bigger contract jobs, I am going to refocus on offering my services to small-press creators at a reduced rate. That means you, graphic novelists. That means you, itch and amazon writers. I want to help you develop your work, the same way I help large organisations. You can learn more about what an editor even does and what kind of pricing you can expect here.

2. I'm also going to start giving shit away. Like, constantly.

Next week I'm going to launch a new free shop. If you're unfamiliar, a free shop, giveaway shop, swap shop, etc. is an anarchist tradition of setting up a storefront where anyone can take what they like for no cost. Offline, this often means second-hand clothes, tools, furniture, food etc. Online, I am going to be giving away digital art. Copyright-free, no strings attached. It will (eventually) feature everything from print-res posters to zines, poems, tattoo flash, t-shirt designs and anything else we come up with.

Yes, I said 'we' - while this is a curated collection, it will feature work from a variety of credited and anonymous artists and activists, all of whom have agreed to give their work away to the public domain. Some of it will be practical, some of it will be political, but a lot of it will be decorative or personal. This is, in part, a response to recent difficulty I had finding somewhere that would print a one-off joke poster for a friend that featured the word 'faggot'. Enough. No middlemen - no explaining ourselves. Just print our shit and enjoy it.

I'm very, very excited about this project. I'll have more to say about it closer to the launch, but you can expect it to go live on March 27th.

2.2 I forgot to mention the ACTUAL LAUNCH GIVEAWAY

To celebrate my launch, I am going to be giving away a ton of physical prints. When I went looking for my old stock to see if it was worth setting a new (paid) storefront up, I realised I had way more old work in storage than I thought. This will be announced in its own right on Monday, but this is why I've been hinting you should go follow my Patreon.

On April 1st, I will pick 8 random patrons (from across all tiers including non-paying followers!) and mail them a bundle of assorted prints and postcards. The prize pool includes A3 and A4 posters, packs of A6 postcards, and printed minicomics that I've previously sold for up to £12 each.

You don't have to be a paying subscriber to enter - this is strictly no-purchase necessary. It is purely and entirely a celebration of the concept of GIVING ART AWAY FOR FREE.

3. PORN, YOU PERVERTS

Because I still have to pay to stay alive, I am going to be subsidising all this free art with the introduction of Fuck You Fridays. Starting from March 29th, I will drop a new 18+ short story on the last Friday of every month, over on itch.io (yes I know my page is desolate right now, don't worry I'll get there).

The first edition, Go Fuck Yourself, is about, well - telling your boss where to stick it. Julia has had it with her millionaire man-child manager, and is just about ready to let him know what she really thinks. It's a short and steamy 5k words, with a gorgeous cover illustration by @taylor-titmouse, and you can pick it up for $3 starting from March 29th.

4. ANOTHER BIG SURPRISE

I'm keeping this one under wraps for now, but April 1st will also play host to one more (FREE) launch. If you've been following me for a long time, you might remember the other significance of this date (no not April Fool's day, though that is certainly thematically relevant to this entire effort). That's all I'll say right now. Watch this space.

tl;dr: I'm sick of paywalls and career ladders. I'm literally putting my money where my mouth is. More free art for everyone and I'm not kidding around!!!

#announcement #please reblog let's make this HAPPEN

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toxicanonymity · 7 months

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when raider met sweet pea

1k words | analysis of raider!Joel x f!reader

Raider Joel Master List

This is a peek inside early, unevolved raider joel in the original fic from March. We know how much he’s grown since then, but he’s done terrible, inexcusable things, and he knows it. NOTES: You're referred to as sweet pea in this, Joel's pet name for you. General HC followed by Q&A. Thank you @milla-frenchy for always having good Qs. I have great Qs from others too that I'll get to as I can (looking at u @javier-penas-wifexx420, and others). To raider's pr team, sorry for going back in time but FIWB. WARNINGS: References to noncon, assault.

Here’s how I HC what happened under the surface: When Joel interrupted the men from taking sweet pea, it wasn't a noble rescue mission. Mainly, he was fed up with the men and wanted to put them in their place. But then, one of the men used the butt of his rifle under her chin to make her look up, and this is what unlocked or triggered something in Joel: She looked at Joel thinking he was saving her, and something in her face had a subconscious effect on him -- like he saw her hope and appreciation, and saw someone looking at him like he was a good man who mattered to them. It made him feel needed, which he hadn’t felt for so long that he didn’t even recognize the feeling, or know how to feel it, much less what to do with it.

That moment created the tiniest crack, a minuscule window into the man buried under the persona built by trauma and the apocalypse. The crack was too tiny to change his behavior yet, but that tiny window allowed him to see a glimmer of something else possible and allowed him to subconsciously connect with her in a way he hadn't connected in ages. From his raider persona, everyone is pretty 2D, so consciously, he's not seeing or treating her (or anyone) as a real person at this point. But that moment still resulted in a “spark,” like a magnetism, and the crack in his shell grows over time.

When he takes her inside: it was likely unusual that he took her somewhere private. Normally, he does things in front of the other men to show dominance (see Stash House). Subconsciously, that tiny part of him wanted to feel like a protector, and taking her somewhere private may have been his pathetic idea of a protective gesture, physically picking her up and taking her away from the worse (more violent) guys.

He takes her to the room intending for her to suck his dick by default, but I don't think P in V was always his intent: He doesn't threaten or mention fucking her upfront when he’s telling her what’s going to happen. He tells her she's gonna suck his dick and to be a good girl and it'll be over quick. While she sucks him, he decides he has to have her (be inside her). He says "alright sweet pea, now pull down your pants for me." He was acting on his primitive urges and what his body wanted in that moment for whatever reason -- he's a raider and has a huge sense of entitlement. Even though his escalation wasn’t out of malice, the effect is that he made the attack worse. He’s a bad person and a r*pist, and he knows it.

(Note, I’m only censoring this word because other people censor it and I sense some people find it jolting to see even if they read noncon. I'm not censoring it to try to make him look better. His past is a part of him, there's no getting around the fact that he's a r*pist. He's the last person who would want it forgiven or excused. He kinda hates himself ).

Q: I've been wondering if he could have done to other women what he did to sweet pea in the 1st chapter

He did at least make other women suck his dick in the past. As for how he sees his past behavior now, it'll come out eventually, not like an OOC monologue, like a word in passing or implied here or there.

Q: I think you wrote somewhere that Joel didn't approve of the behavior of some of his men with women, and that Carter wasn't like that (was I dreaming?)

The men who had sweet pea at the beginning of ch 1 are more physically aggressive and violent with women, physically forcing them and hurting them, whereas Joel calmly told sweet pea what to do (while he was heavily armed) and didn’t physically hurt her. The other men will smack them around and gang rape them. Joel feels like that behavior from men is weak, like if you're going to physically hurt someone, pick on someone your own size. He doesn’t feel moral superiority for this (I mean he doesn't see himself as a good guy), but he sees himself as stronger and more dominant than men who need to hurt a weaker person.

Q: Why is he so possessive and jealous, since day 1? In failed rescue : "He describes you. Joel’s jaw clenches and his eyes darken. He waits a beat before answering." I love that 😏 but it's super fast. Did she trigger something in him from day one?

When he initially decided she's his so quickly, most importantly, he means she's not anyone else's. He's in charge, he's claimed her, he's dominant, and he's the boss. That was his original intent and he didn't expect it to go further than that. But it goes beyond that because of the moment explained above. So it's also his primitive instinct that she's his, and that’s what you see when her bf describes her in your quote. Whatever connection or feeling was created by the way she looked at Joel made her special, and he couldn't let go of it. So she became like a precious possession at that point. Since then, he’s slowly evolved to where she’s not just a possession, but certainly still his.

—

Thank you so much for reading. I really adore everyone's interest and investment in raider!Joel. If you love raider joel, please interact with his fics -- it's always better late than never. Comments mean a lot no matter how small, and reblogs mean a lot regardless of blog size. I know most of raider's fans started as lurkers, and I don't judge for your lurking era. Most of my tumblr bffs started as lurkers.

Ik the tense is all over the place in this sorry lol

TY ILY 🖤🖤🖤

#raider!analysis #raider!joel #raider!joel miller #dark!joel miller #joel miller x reader #joel miller fanfic #tlou fanfiction #joel miller x f!reader #joel miller x female reader #tw noncon #cw noncon #toxicanonymity ☠️

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nostalgicamerica · 2 months

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My Weight-Loss Journey

Over the last three decades, despite a relatively active lifestyle, my weight has steadily increased a pound or two per year. I could see it was becoming a problem every morning in my foggy bathroom mirror.

I finally realized that I had to do something about it last fall when I walked out onto my porch one morning. The neighbor's kitten came over to say good morning and got caught up in my gravitational field and went into orbit around my waistline.

It was then I started looking into different diets. Keto, Caveman, high fat, low carb, lima bean, Atkins. Holy crap! The number of different diet choices were staggering. Greater still were the numbers of dieticians and nutritionists shrieking that this diet is best and only a booger-eater would choose that diet.

After a bit of cogitation, I started researching the Carnivore diet.

It sounded right up my alley: eating nothing but meat, cheese, eggs, and dairy products, and drinking water. And I could eat bacon. Basically, I could eat anything that is animal-based.

The bacon thing sold it for me.

The week before Thanksgiving 2023 I started my new diet plan. You might think that dieting during the holidays wasn't a grand idea, and you'd be right. Eating nothing but meat while watching my family chowing down on traditional holiday meals (turkey and all the fixings for Thanksgiving, and ham and all the fixings for Christmas) and stuffing their faces with cookies and candy and pie and everything else associated with the holidays was as much fun as stuffing a cactus up my rectum.

But I stuck to it.

To this point in my life I had never been disciplined about anything related to food, but somewhere along the way I found the strength to keep anything not indicated by the diet out of my pie hole. (except coffee - I'll be cold, dead, and buried before I stop drinking coffee.)

And the weight came off. 3,4,5 pounds a week. It seemed to literally melting off me. My initial goal was 50 pounds by the end of February and then I'd transition to something more sustainable.

It wasn't easy, at times, especially during the first 2 or 3 weeks. I bought some bite-size sugar free candy to take the edge off for the times when I was jonesing for sugar. And I ate a ton of bacon.

By Christmas Eve I had lost 20.5 pounds. By January's close I had dropped 34 pounds. On January 8th, 2024 I got out of the shower and looked down and saw my penis without a mirror for the first time since about 2003. Also, I could see a six-pack peeking from behind what remains of my belly fat. As of this writing I'm down 39 Pounds. I have a few more days to go, but I don't think I will hit 50. But that's okay.

On March 1st I will start introducing fruits and veggies and whole grains to my diet. I intend to stay away from cane sugar and continue drinking only water.

There have been some negatives along the way. 1. I now abhor the sight of steak. 2. My dog won't stop licking my legs. 3. I have had to go out and buy essentially a new wardrobe.

What I've learned - coupled with portion control - is that 90% of weight loss happens in the kitchen, and the plain fact that bacon makes everything better.

Even though I didn't meet my first goal of 50, I intend to keep going until I've met my ultimate goal of 60. I know I can do it by the end of this year.

I don't know if this will work for everyone; I only relate what I did and what happened. Overall I feel great, I am sleeping great, and my spousal unit says I look better than I have since the beginning of the Clinton administration, although she wants to buy a new car so she may be playing me...

There is enough info about the carnivore diet on the interweb-thingee so I won't add anything else except to say if I can do it, anyone can.

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sambuckylibrary · 1 year

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TFATWS Anniversary Event

The @sambuckylibrary will be holding a The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Anniversary Event! The event will start on March 19th and run until April 23rd. During that time, we will be reblogging and sharing the work you guys create here on our blog.

You can post fanfiction, art, moodboards, edits, podfics, etc. It’ll be a low-stakes event. No need to sign up. Just remember to tag @sambuckylibary in your post for each fill, and we will be tracking #tfatwsanniversaryevent2023 for reblogs.

If you are posting on AO3, please add it to TFATWS Anniversary Event 2023 Collection.

Each week will have a different theme with prompts from Monday to Friday. Each prompt will also come with a badge you may use for it when you post. The weekly themes and their prompts will be:

For the text version of the information above as well as the FAQ and rules, check the information under “keep reading”.

Pre-TFATWS Week: March 19th-March 25th

Monday: The Steering Wheel Incident Tuesday: Searching for Bucky Barnes Wednesday: On the Run Together Thursday: In the Soul Stone Friday: Six Months of Ghosting Sam

TFATWS Week: March 26th-April 1st

Monday: Plane to Germany Tuesday: Rolling in the Field Together Wednesday: A Night in Madripoor Thursday: Fixing the Boat Friday: The Cookout

AU Week: April 2nd - April 8th

Monday: Royalty AU Tuesday: Sports AU Wednesday: Angel/Demon AU Thursday: Social Media AU Friday: Vampire/Werewolf AU

Romance Tropes Week: April 9th - April 15th

Monday: Getting Together Tuesday: Enemies to Lovers Wednesday: Hurt/Comfort Thursday: Fake Dating Friday: First Time

SamBucky Week: April 16th - April 23th

Monday: Redwing Tuesday: A Couple of Guys Wednesday: I Would Be His Roommate, But Thursday: Costco Tub of Lube Friday: Best Friend's Best Friend

FAQ

What is this?

It’s a SamBucky event.

Is there any pressure?

No pressure at all. Fill one prompt. Fill all the prompts in a week. Do however many you please.

Can I fill more than one prompt with one piece of art/one fic?

Yes! You can fill one prompt with one piece of art or fic. You can try to fill all five prompts that week at once with one piece of art or fic. You can do any number in between.

Are there any prizes for making anything for this event?

Just the satisfaction that you made something cool.

Is it just SamBucky?

Yes please, just SamBucky. There can be side ships, but the main ship should be SamBucky.

How long will this event run?

It will run from March 19th and run until April 23th.

I heard there are badges I can use for each fill?

There are! They will be revealed on the Sunday of each week.

Rules and Guidelines

What are the guidelines for the bingo?

I will be borrowing some of this from the MYSU Valentine’s Day Bingo 2022 Guidelines, since they were fantastic.

For Everyone:

1. Remember to @sambuckylibrary in the post as well as #tfatwsanniversaryevent2023.

2. Please also tag the square you’re filling (for instance, if the square is “Sports AU”, use “#sports au” as one of your tags when posting about it on Tumblr).

3. If you’re uploading to AO3, please:

a ) Say somewhere which prompt you’re filling.

b ) Add it to TFATWS Anniversary Event 2023 Collection (TFATWS_Anniversary_Event_2023).

For Artists:

1. Create at least one piece of new art that can’t have been posted anywhere else before this.

2. All visual art forms are welcome:

a ) Gifsets, at least 3 gifs.

b ) Aesthetic boards or moodboards, at least 4 images each.

c ) Drawing/painting, that is not a sketch.

For Authors:

1. At least 500 words.

2. Posted on Tumblr or AO3.

3. Can be part of a series, but should work as a standalone.

For Podficcers:

1. The podfic should at least be 10 minutes long.

2. It should be posted on either Tumblr or AO3.

3. The podfic can be of a fic made for the event, a fic not made for the event while still adhering to the prompt, or a notfic.

Things to be mindful of when creating:

For Sam

Avoid framing Sam only as a caretaker or emotional support for Bucky. Be mindful of Sam acting angry or aggressive in an out-of-character way and falling into the angry/sassy Black man trope (check out the MCU source material to help with character traits).

Avoid decentering Sam as a main character and refrain from focusing entirely on Bucky.

In art: avoid whitewashing Sam’s skin and research drawing Black characters.

General disclaimer: Race affects every aspect of his life, including interacting with police/government and the white structures of the world when it comes to performing his duties as Cap and simply being a Black man that lives in the U.S.

For Bucky

Avoid phrasing “flesh/normal/human hand” to refer to the contrast between his prosthetic arm and his right arm. The phrasing is ableist. You can simply refer to his prosthesis when relevant, otherwise use “right/left arm/hand”.

Specific Tags:

Avoid tags in AO3 like “Sam Wilson is a Gift”, “Sam Wilson is a Saint”, and "Bucky Needs a Hug".

Have fun and we look forward to your TFATWS Anniversary fics!

- The Mods

#tfatwsanniversaryevent2023 #sambucky #sam wilson #bucky barnes #tfatws #tfatws anniversary event #sambucky fanfic #sambucky art #sambucky edit #sambucky moodboard #mod: thatmexisaurusrex

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1dsongfest · 8 months

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1D Song Fest - Info, Rules, Schedule

Song Fest is back!

For round one, we had some lovely fics based on songs from One Direction’s extensive track list.

For round two, we’re going past One Direction and beyond—the sky is the limit!

It is estimated that there are over 200 million songs in the world, so the possibilities for fics are endless!

Modded by @larry-hiatus

All the info you need is below!

Rules

What are the restrictions on which songs can be picked?

The song must have lyrics. Instrumentals are pretty, but we want fics based on the words of a song!

A recording of the song must exist somewhere online. Now what do we mean by “a recording”? Basically just a link that will allow someone to listen to the song. This could be Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, TikTok, anything, as long as it links back to an audio of the song.

The song does not have to be officially released or professionally recorded. There are plenty of awesome songs out there that never made it to air, but they’re still inspirational! These are allowed as long as there is a recording of it!

The song does not have to be full length. There are a lot of indie artists on TikTok who have teased a quick thirty seconds of a song. If that thirty seconds inspired you, you can use it as the basis for a fic.

One Direction’s and the boys’ solo songs are also allowed.

What will prompts look like?

When prompt submissions open, you can submit songs along with a specific prompt, or you can just submit a song by itself. For example, prompts may look like this:

Based off of the song Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran - Louis is older and has grown apart from his four best friends from childhood into his early twenties. He finds himself reminiscing on the good times, and he decides he wants to track them down and see if he can organize a reunion.

A Larry fic based off of the song Paper Rings by Taylor Swift where Harry is the song’s narrator.

A fic based off the song Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes.

You can be as creative as you would like when coming up with prompts and writing fics. You can follow the song very closely or just use part of it for inspiration. As long as the relationship to the song can be identified, you can come up with whatever you’d like!

You can write any pairing or even no pairing as long as the fic contains at least one of the five boys—Harry, Louis, Liam, Niall, and/or Zayn. Girl Direction, smut, omegaverse, polyamory, and trans characters are all allowed if you wish!

This fest is for people 18+ only. The fics will not be moderated, and any content is allowed to be written as long as it is appropriately tagged on AO3.

There is no minimum or maximum word count requirement. You can write multiple fics, but please make sure you can handle the extra load. Co-writing fics is also allowed.

Your fic title does not need to include the song title or lyrics that inspired you, but it can if you want it to!

Having your fic betaed is preferred but not required.

Please only submit completed fics. If you need to drop out or you would like an extension, please send a message to let me know. I understand that things can happen.

The fest is not anonymous, so feel free to share snippets and other fun WIP posts. Tag @1dsongfest if you want me to share your post!

Communication about the fest will happen on Tumblr instead of email, so keep an eye on your messages after you sign up. You can send asks or private messages with your questions, and I will be happy to answer them for you!

Schedule

Prompt submissions open - September 6th

Prompt submissions close - End of the day September 25th

Author signups open - September 26th (will stay open throughout the fest!)

Fics due - February 25th

Fic posting starts - March 1st

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sequinsmile-x · 1 year

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All My Love

She had, incorrectly, assumed they would just let the day pass them by.

When she wakes up on Valentine's Day, she realises she couldn’t have been more wrong.

A Hotchniss Valentine's Day fic.

-x-

Hi friends!

I realised I have somehow made it over two years writing for the Hotchniss fandom without writing a Valentine's Day fic for them!

Consider this my apology for such a terrible error. It is, for once, 3.8k of pure fluff. Not a single bit of hurt comfort in sight.

-x-

Words: 3.8k

Warnings: None!

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

There was something about leap years that Emily had always hated. The extra day a nuisance as she did her paperwork, scratching out the incorrect date and replacing it with February 29th. Muttering under her breath how she shouldn’t have to work on a day that didn’t exist most of the time.

She hated leap years until her first date with Aaron happened to fall on one.

It still made her smile when she thought about it. The way he’d nervously asked her out on a date as if she’d ever have any other answer than yes. As if she hadn’t loved him as long as he had loved her. Work had gotten in the way as it always did, and their dinner was pushed further and further back. It ended up being a Wednesday of all day when everything changed for the better. They were back from a case. Jack was with Roy and Jessica for a few days. They had nothing but time and each other, and they both grabbed it with both hands.

It was only afterwards, as they lay tangled in her bed together, her face pressed into his chest that it dawned on her. Her eyes glancing at the alarm on the nightstand, checking to see if they had time for another round before they went to sleep when she notices it. The date staring back at her in bright red letters.

February 29th.

After that, it became her favourite day. The day everything finally fell into place.

It quickly became a point of amusement to the rest of the team after they found out about them, teasing them as they joked about how their anniversary would only come around every four years.

Emily and Aaron can’t bring themselves to care, both of them finally allowing themselves to be happy. The soft epilogue they both deserved.

At times, she worries it’s going too fast. They say I love you almost immediately. She moves in with him and Jack a few months into their relationship. They talk about marriage and children, buying a house together so they can finally have somewhere to call home, as if they hadn’t already found that in each other. Whenever she worries about it, old instincts to run threatening to take over she only has to look at him and she’s ok again. The comfort she’d always been looking for had been right in front of her this whole time, in what she would have once considered the most unlikely of places.

By the time the new year rolls around and their anniversary is just on the horizon, she and Aaron playfully bicker about whether they should celebrate. She says it should be February 28th, but he insists March 1st is the better substitute. It becomes a back-and-forth that lasts until they agree to celebrate both days. Whatever plans they had were sure to last long past midnight anyway.

The thought of it makes her skin tingle, excitement fizzing just beneath the surface as she plans out her outfits. Idly thinking about finding time to go to her favourite lingerie store to buy something especially. It’s what she later firmly blames her oversight on. Their upcoming anniversary. The house that they had just bought and were slowly moving into. The fact they’d never actually spoken about it, and she had, incorrectly, assumed they would just let the day pass them by.

When she wakes up on Valentine's Day, she realises she couldn’t have been more wrong.

___

He wakes her up slowly.

His hand skates up and down her back as he sits on the edge of the bed next to her. He leans down, pressing his lips to her bare shoulder. He smothers a smile against her skin as she grumbles, the first sign that she is somewhere close to being awake.

“What time is it?” She mumbles, attempting to snuggle deeper into the bed, “Did we get a case?”

Aaron chuckles and kisses her cheek before he pulls back, “No sweetheart, no case. And it's just before 6 am.”

She groans, turning her face into her pillow, her response muffled by the material, “Then why the fuck have you woken me up?”

“I made you breakfast,” he says simply as if the answer was obvious. His voice full of his endless patience for her and her hatred of early mornings.

She opens her eyes, her question of why breakfast meant she had to be woken up quite so early when they were only heading to the office dying on her tongue before she can even open her mouth. There is a vase on her nightstand, pink carnations staring back at her that weren’t there the night before. Flowers he must have hidden somewhere in their apartment because she knows there aren’t any stores that sell them open yet.

She sits up, turning to look at Aaron, her brows creased in confusion as he slips a tray into her lap. There’s fresh fruit - strawberries and pieces of melon cut up lovingly next to a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice. In the centre of the tray is a stack of pancakes, every single one in the shape of a heart. She looks back up at him, and she chuckles, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

“Aaron-”

“The pancakes might have been a little much,” he says, climbing back under the covers on his side of the bed, sneaking one of the strawberries and eating it as he sits next to her, his arm around her shoulders, “But it’s our first Valentine’s Day together,” he explains, pressing a kiss to the side of her head, “So I thought I’d make an effort.”

“Valentine's Day?” She asks, her brows furrowing further. He nods, kissing her head again.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetheart.”

That’s when it hits her, her still half-asleep brain finally catching up with what was happening. She turns to look at the alarm clock on the nightstand, just past the carnations and the card she had only just noticed, and sees the date flashing back at her. She feels her heart drop into her stomach, guilt flooding her veins so quickly she’s surprised her cheeks don’t burn with it, immediately giving her away.

She hadn’t bought him anything. Not even a card.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” she replies, clearing her throat when her voice cracks slightly, “You didn’t have to do all of this,” she says, looking up at him, hoping he doesn’t see her barely restrained panic, “It’s sweet,” she reaches out and cups his cheek, her thumb skating over his stubble, “But you love me every day.”

He smiles, pressing his lips to hers, his kiss tasting like the strawberry he’d eaten, and he pulls back to look at her.

“Eat your pancakes.”

She chuckles, shaking her head at him, the worry still bubbling in her stomach, “You’ll have to help me.”

“Of course,” he says, grabbing the pancake from the top of the pile with his fingers, a move he knew annoyed her to no end because Jack had also started doing it when they went out for breakfast. He winks at her, his dimples carved out in his cheeks as his smile deepens, “Why do you think I made so many? I’ll give you your actual present later.”

“Honey,” she says, guilt turning the taste of the pancakes bitter, “you don’t have to-”

“I can’t exactly return it,” he says, cutting her off before he grabs another pancake, kissing the side of her head again as he stands up. He looks at her expectantly, such love for her in his eyes that she feels as blown away by it as she did the very first time she saw it “Later?”

She nods, picking up the cup of coffee so she can do something other than feel awful, the heat of the ceramic against her palm enough to displace some of the guilt.

“Later.”

___

Emily,

Happy Valentine’s Day.

I’m not always the best at putting how I feel into words. I’m better at doing things, at showing how I feel. But I never want you to doubt it.

I love you.

You are the best thing that ever happened to me and my son. I haven’t felt happiness, or heard Jack laugh as much, as I have in the last year.

Thank you for loving us, and for just being you.

I hope that for the rest of our lives, I can make you feel even half as loved as you’ve made me feel.

All my love,

Aaron

___

She makes her excuses as soon as they arrive at work and walks to Penelope’s office as soon as she can, barely knocking on the door before she lets herself in.

“I think I fucked up.”

Penelope turns in her chair to look at her, her brows knitting together, “What did you do, peaches?” Her eyes go wide in a way Emily would find comical in any other circumstance, “Oh no, you don’t have another secret spy past about to come out do you?”

Emily sighs, running her fingers through her hair. “No, nothing like that. I…I forgot to get Aaron anything for Valentine’s Day.”

Penelope stares at her and there's a beat of silence, “You what?”

“I know,” Emily groans, crossing her arms over her chest, “It’s just with our anniversary coming up-”

“Your fake anniversary-”

“With our anniversary coming up,” Emily repeats, a raised eyebrow her only response to her friend's comment about the fact their anniversary wouldn’t actually be for another 3 years, “And the move to the house I just…didn’t think about it. And I didn’t think he’d be a Valentine’s Day kind of guy. But he bought me flowers and made heart-shaped pancakes-”

“He made heart-shaped pancakes?!”

“And he even wrote the sweetest thing in my card,” Emily continues as if Penelope hadn’t spoken, and she starts to pace, “I don’t know what to do.”

Penelope walks over and places her hands on Emily’s shoulders, stopping her pacing back and forth. “Em, you’re spiralling. You don’t spiral,” she says, guiding her friend to sit down.

“I have to get him something,” Emily laments, sighing again, “Otherwise he’ll realise he can do better than me.”

“Ok, for a start there is no one better than you. You are literally the most beautiful person I have ever met in my life. To the point where I often wonder if you were made in a factory somewhere instead of being born,” Penelope says, looking at Emily over the rim of her glasses, pleased when Emily smiles, a slight blush rising in her cheeks because of the compliment, “And Hotch is obsessed with you. I have never seen a couple so disgustingly in love. We can fix this. We’ll say we’re going out for lunch and we can go to the mall. What kind of thing does he like?”

“Well, he always likes it when I suck his di-”

“Gross. No. Ew,” Penelope says, shaking her head fiercely as Emily frowns at her, throwing her hands up in confusion.

“What’s your problem? You’re always asking for details of our sex life.”

“Yes. When we are in a bar and Hotch is just your boyfriend. Not here in my office where he is my boss,” she grimaces, “My boss who I can only imagine having sex once a year with the lights off.”

Emily raises an eyebrow at her, “I can assure you that is not the case.”

“Em.”

Emily sighs and rolls her eyes, trying desperately to think of other gift ideas. Then it suddenly springs to mind, how he’d only been lamenting the night before that his favourite watch was broken.

“He needs a new watch. He broke his a couple of weeks ago during a case when he took down that unsub,” she says, “he keeps talking about getting it repaired.”

Penelope beams, “Sound perfect. Looks like we’re going shopping.”

___

He takes her to their house instead of their apartment. A soft smile on his face as she questions him about it, and a request to trust him pressed against her temple.

They were slowly moving in, making changes to rooms as they went. Spending the weekends they were home tearing down old wallpaper and painting walls, laughing as they make the house a home. At first, she’s unsure why he’s brought her here, since all of their furniture was still at the apartment or in storage, but she realises as soon as they walk into their bedroom.

The walls were now painted in the dark green colour they’d chosen, and he’d had the furniture moved in. Personal touches such as trinkets she hadn’t noticed had gone from the apartment and her favourite photo of them on her nightstand. The focal point of the room was a new bed that they’d picked out together, hours spent in a furniture store as Jack complained of boredom heartily, right up until the moment they let him pick his own bed.

“Aaron,” she breathes out, turning to look at him, “When did you do this?”

He smiles at her, closing the gap between them and wrapping her arms tightly around her from behind, leaning down so his chin is on her shoulder.

“Do you remember last weekend when I took Dave fishing?” He asks, and she nods turning her head just enough to look at him, “Well…we didn’t go fishing.”

She laughs, pressing her lips to his cheek, “No wonder he looked so pissed off on Monday.”

“Yeah, he does not like manual labour,” Aaron replies, turning her in his embrace, “I may have promised him the role of godfather for our firstborn.”

She laughs again, even brighter this time, and she shakes her head, wrapping her arms around his neck. The mere thought of having a kid with him enough to make her chest burst with happiness.

“That poor kid, they don’t even exist yet and they already have Rossi as a potential guardian,” she smiles widely at him, leaning in to press her lips to his, hoping she can put everything into it that she knows she’ll never have the words for. They undress each other slowly, touching and revering each other like it was the first time again, taking each other apart before slotting the pieces back into place.

Afterwards, they lay tangled together in the bed, the soft sheets wrapped around them. Emily hums as he runs his fingers up and down her spine and she places her hands on his chest, pushing herself up just enough to look at him.

“Getting a super king feels like a bit of a waste,” she comments, looking over to the empty half of the bed, “We’ve always been snugglers.”

Aaron smiles, cupping the back of her head to draw her in for a kiss, “Well I guess the other half is for Sergio. And Jack on the nights he sneaks in. And any future additions,” he kisses her again, the action lost in a smile. “Do you want your present now?”

She sighs, the same guilt from earlier resurfacing at the knowledge of just how much thought he’d put into today.

“Aaron, you’ve already done so much. Breakfast, and all of this,” she says, gesturing to the room, “I don’t need anything else.”

He gently shakes his head at her and reaches for the nightstand, reaching into the top drawer as he sits up, encouraging her to do the same. He pulls out a Tiffany’s box, a slightly nervous look on his face as he hands it to her.

For a brief moment, she thinks he’s going to propose, a mix of anticipation and uneasiness spreading through her. They’d spoken about it before. Marriage was something they both wanted. And whilst she’d embraced the idea of celebrating Valentine’s Day she wasn’t sure she wanted to get engaged during it. She opens the Tiffany’s box and feels relief when she’s met with a silver necklace, a small disk charm with the letter ‘E’ staring back at her.

“Do you like it?”

She looks up at Aaron and realises that she must have been silent for some time and she smiles, nodding at him.

“I love it,” she looks back at the necklace, gently touching the charm. She remembers her college boyfriend buying her something similar, his own name engraved on a necklace she’d thrown away when she caught him cheating on her. “You didn’t go for ‘A’,” she says, her eyes meeting his, her smile deepens when he frowns, confusion colouring his expression, a sign that it hadn’t even crossed his mind, “You didn’t get your name on it.”

“Why would I?” He asks, “You’re not my property,” he says it so simply it makes her laugh, and she closes the distance between them, cupping his cheek, “What?”

“Nothing,” she replies, leaning in to stamp her lips against his, “I just love you, that’s all.”

“I love you too,” he says, smiling into a kiss.

“Put it on me?” She asks, just pulling back enough to look at him and he nods, taking the box from her and gently taking out the necklace. He puts it around her neck, his fingers lingering on her skin before he tugs her into a hug, his arms tight around her. She looks down at the charm on her chest and smiles, reaching up to touch it, to familiarise herself with the feel of it against her skin. She shifts to move out of his embrace, chuckling when he pulls her backwards, “Let me get your gift, it’s just in my bag.”

She’s out of bed for a matter of seconds, the cool air of the room not sinking in at all, the heat of his gaze on her naked skin enough to keep her warm. She grabs the box his gift is in and the card, climbing back under the covers and leaning into his side immediately.

“Here you go,” she says, swallowing thickly, hoping he doesn’t realise she’d bought it only a matter of hours ago just by looking at her.

Aaron gratefully takes the gift, placing the card on the nightstand. His hand freezes when he sees the Rolex insignia on the outside, his gaze flicking back up to hers. She has her lower lip caught between her teeth and he looks back down to open it. He knows immediately it’s not even the cheapest end of the range of watches she could have bought, and he breathes out harshly.

“Em-”

“It’s made of steel,” she says, cutting over any insistence that it was too much, and she shrugs slightly when he looks up at her, “That way you won’t be able to break it as easily.”

“Em, sweetheart,” he replies, reaching out and grabbing her hand, “This is too much this must have cost a few thousand dollars,” he watches as her face tightens slightly, “How much was it?”

She clears her throat, the conversation going in a different direction than how she had anticipated. They had argued about money exactly once - when they were buying the very house they were in. She’d never kept her trust fund a secret, but she didn’t flash it everywhere either. She used it to look after the people she loved. She thinks about telling him that it’s a gift, that she doesn’t have to tell him, but she knows he’d look it up anyway.

She blows out a steady breath, “$10,000.”

“$10,000?” He exclaims, his eyes going wide, “That’s way too much, Em.”

Emily watches as he does the math, an unnecessary comparison in his head on what he’d spent on her, and she feels all the guilt she had buried all day spilling out of her.

“I didn’t get you anything,” she says, her voice a little louder than she intends. She sighs, reaching for the box and taking it from him, removing the watch and looping it around his wrist as he carries on, “I didn’t think about Valentine’s Day until this morning,” she admits, avoiding his gaze, “And then you were so sweet and…I panicked. I felt awful I didn’t buy you anything so Pen and I went shopping at lunchtime.”

He finally puts the pieces together. The mystery of why she’d swerved him at lunch finally solved.

“Em-”

“And you needed a watch, and it needed to be a decent one,” she finally looks up at him, and is relieved when she sees the usual affection in his eyes, “And I can afford to do this so…please just accept it,” she says, doing up the clasp before straightening it on his wrist, “Plus it looks good on you.”

Aaron huffs out a laugh and leans in to kiss her, tucking some of her hair behind her ear, “Ok,” he concedes, stamping another kiss against her lips. “Thank you.”

“And I’m sorry I’m such a shitty girlfriend,” she grumbles, pressing her face into his chest. Aaron shakes his head at her, shifting them so they were laying down again. He kisses the top of her head.

“You’re not a shitty girlfriend, Em,” he assures her, running his hand up and down her back, “not by a long shot.”

She hides her smile in his chest, drawing idle patterns on his skin with her fingers, tracing the scars that were as familiar to her as his smile.

“Thank you for not proposing today,” she says without meaning to, grateful when he doesn’t tense, as if he’d been expecting her to say it.

“I thought about it,” he admits, holding her impossibly closer, “But then I realised you’d hate it. Plus I want the element of surprise,” he smiles as she tilts her head to look up at him, “You’ll never see it coming.”

Emily rolls her eyes at him, settling back down, “Yeah, good luck with that, honey.”

They fall into a comfortable silence, and she thinks he’s fallen asleep until he talks again.

“Em?” He asks, and she hums in response, slowly being lulled to sleep by his hand on her back, “I cannot wait to tell Dave you panic bought a $10,000 watch on your lunch break.”

___

Aaron,

This is the first time I’ve ever bought a card for this holiday. I stood in the store so long I think the assistant thought I was going to steal something.

Valentine’s Day always seemed so pointless to me, because I think if you love someone you should show them every day, not just one day a year. But you’ve taught me that so many things, like lazy Sundays on the couch or mac & cheese made from scratch that I once thought were pointless, can be amazing.

You make everything amazing.

I love you, more than I ever thought was possible, and I should take every chance I can to let you know that.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

All my love,

Emily

-x-

Tag list:

@ssa-sparks, @lukeclvez, @lyds102, @glockleveledatyourcrotch, @hotchnissenthusiast, @danadeservesadrink, @ssamorganhotchner, @emilyprentissisgod, @notagentprentiss, @freesiasandfics, @emilyshotchniss, @thecharmingart, @paulitalblond, @hancydrewfan, @camille093, @whitecrossgirl, @moonlight-2-6, @rawr-jess, @florenceremingtonthethird, @jareauswife, @ms-black-a, @beebeelank, @aubreyprc, @zipzapboingg, @psychopath-at-heart, @criminalmindsgonewrong, @fionaloover, @kinqslcys, @prentissinred, @ccmattis22, @denvivale317, @thrindis, @hotchsguccitie, @cmfouatslota77, @alexblakegf, @aliensaurusrex, @prentissxhotch, @emobabeyy, @victoiregranger, @stormyweatherth, @wanderingdreamer009, @ssablackbird, @luhconh, @lex13cm

#hotchniss #hotchniss fanfiction #hotchniss fanfic #aaron hotchner x emily prentiss #aaron x emily #hotch x prentiss #aaron hotchner fanfiction #emily prentiss fanfiction

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belphegor1982 · 17 days

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HEY WAITAMINUTE IS "underture" a reference to the music term "overture"? Mayhaps a Scanlan WIP?!?!

srryok bai now

Yup, kind of! It's the first CR I got an idea for - in March last year, for TLOVM, as I hadn't even watched most of the first campaign yet - and, incidentally, the only one out of five fics (/comics, if you count Scar Tissue) and 2 WIPs that doesn't begin with the letter S :P (not even on purpose, it just happened!)

Okay, so this fic exists because of three reasons:

• "Underture" is a title on the Who's concept album Tommy (and yes, a play on "overture"!) because the titular lad is Going Through It (and being made to taste drugs iirc). I discovered that album around 2002 and love the word.

• One of my favourite fics overall (like, all fandoms) is @plothooksinc's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) "Underdark", which has Leo and Mikey fall under the city in complete darkness and try to make their way back to their brothers (and the surface), with Mikey as the 1st person narrator. It is hilarious and super tense and glorious and one of the great classics in the entire franchise's fandom, imo (or should be). Since I read it in the mid-to-late 2000s I had no idea that "Underdark" was actually a D&D term and was gobsmacked when I learned! The more you know :D

• And the main reason this WIP exists is because I essentially went "wait, what if "Underdark", but make it Vax and Scanlan". Of course, now it took a life of its own and there's going to be a Structure to it (start in media res, and then alternate "how we got there" chapters and "so what's happening in the creepy dark in the present" chapters). With a healthy dose of getting to know each other and going from essentially work colleagues to friends 💜

Here's a little excerpt from page 2, so literally the start of the fic (for context, Vax got washed down a mine and wakes up alone in a tunnel):

And, somewhere in the distance, a familiar voice.

“…help?”

Vax scrambled up, finding purchase on the slippery rock wall nearby, chasing sound rather than sight. The world in front of him was little more than blobs in varying shades of black. His ears were more reliable than his eyes right now.

“Where are you?” he called. “Are you okay?”

“Define ‘okay’?”

Vax bit back a tart comment. Damn Scanlan and his utter and complete inability to be serious.

“Like, not hurt? Can you move? What’s your position?”

“Not… great.”

“What do you mean?” Vax asked sharply, still half-feeling his way along the wall. Scanlan’s voice was getting clearer, or at least closer; it also sounded breathless, strained, small in a way it rarely did. Vax could only hope most of that could be chalked up to the sore throat he’d been complaining about for the last couple of days.

There was a scrabble and a gasp. When Scanlan spoke again his pitch had climbed a few notes.

“I mean I’m kinda hanging off a cliff? Or some kind of ledge, anyway. And uh, my fingers are getting real tired, if you know what I mean.” A short, nervous laugh. “I really really don’t want to lose fingernails. It hurts like a mother and it makes playing the lute really difficult.”

“Hang on and keep talking,” said Vax, straining his ears and trying to ignore his pounding heart. “I’m on my way.”

“Okay. Usually, not really a problem, but uh… Aw, crap.” There was a strangled sound, like he’d choked up on a cough, and some more scratching. “You know me, I talk – I talk real good. B—big fan of talking. I’m a great talker, too. Talker, singer, player – give me any instrument and it is on, baby. I mean I’ve never tried the double bass, you know, those big-ass cellos. Got curious but the bow alone is almost bigger than me, so that sucks. Plus they’re really expensive. Vax?”

“Yes?”

“Hurry?”

Vax practically ran around a corner and stared into the dark as hard as he could. The tunnel in front of him kept going in a downward slope, the ceiling gradually getting lower; there was a pathway of sorts along the wall, but most of the rocky ground seemed to disappear, as though erased from existence, into the starkest black Vax had ever seen. Rivulets of water trickled into it from the walls and the ground, slithering between protruding rocks, the only movement he could discern.

Wait… Not quite the only movement.

Vax bolted towards the fingers he could see grasping at a small rocky ridge a foot or so below the edge.

“Shitshitshitshit,” he could hear Scanlan chanting, his breathing now frantic and his voice gone beyond squeaky. “Vax…!”

Three things happened almost instantaneously:

Vax reached down and grabbed one of Scanlan’s arms just as his fingers lost their grip on the ledge.

In a last-ditch attempt to find a hold of something, Scanlan’s other hand shot up and closed around the clasp of Vax’s cloak.

Vax belatedly realised he’d miscalculated as Scanlan’s weight and his own momentum carried him past the edge and into the black.

(welp, they're dead :P no they're not but they certainly think so for a hot second)

#sometimes I write #critical role #vox machina #vax'ildan #scanlan shorthalt

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alln64games · 4 months

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Super Mario 64

JP release: 23rd June 1996

NA release: 29th September 1996

PAL release: 1st March 1997

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

N64 Magazine Score: 96%

Starting off with a bang, one of the Nintendo 64’s launch titles just happens to be a revolutionary game that’s one of the best games on the system. It didn’t just show the world how platform games could work in 3D, but it set the standard for movement in 3D as well. Despite it’s legendary status, Nintendo have never given us the port that this game deserves. Super Mario 64 doesn’t need a full remake, just a little bit of sprucing, widescreen and an updated camera.

Luckily, fans of the game have done this themselves by fully recreating the game’s engine on PC, with lots of options to set it up the way you want. There’s some much more graphically impressive options than what I chose, but I wanted it to look similar to the original game, with just crisper textures and some of the 2D objects replaced with 3D ones.

The movement of Mario still feels amazing all these years later. His move set is brilliant with all of his moves (minus the special hats) available form the get-go, it’s just a case of learning it and figuring out the best way do move. Most people will start off ding taller jumps by doing the backflip, but then transition to the quick turn jump to get up to the tall platforms. Even now, it’s an absolute joy to control.

The camera from the original game is the main part of the game that now feels clunky. It was pretty amazing when the game came out, but it’s one aspect of games that has improved over time. Luckily, the version I played lets you turn on a more modern analogue camera, which (along with widescreen) is really all Super Mario 64 needs to feel modern.

The levels are small, but it’s a style that really suits the game. They’re packed full of secrets, with six stars to find in each one (plus an extra star for collecting 100 coins). Once you collect a star, you’re thrown out of the level, which does mean you have to re-do parts of levels multiple times, but there are sometimes changed to the level depending on which star you collect. There is a mod that lets you remain in levels, but I feel like this alters the game too much, and is itself fiddly as you need to work out when you need to manually leave the level.

Each level has a very distinct feel to it and I enjoyed every level in the game, with the exception of two of the water levels. While some have generic themes (lava, water and ice), the levels are still built in unique ways, and even matching themes (like the two snow levels) don’t feel like a reuse due to the level design.

Other than a couple of stars that include the wing, metal and invisible caps, you can also complete levels before moving on, or just do a couple of stars and try somewhere else. You only need 70 out of 120 stars to complete the game (far fewer if you choose to do glitches), but it’s enjoyable collecting them all.

To unlock different sections of the castle (and access more levels), you need to complete Bowser’s levels. There are three in total (the last one being to save Peach) and these are much more linear platform challenges, which creates a nice change of pace. At the end of these you have to face off against Bowser, grabbing his tail and spinning him to throw him into bombs, and I’m still absolutely dreadful at aiming my throws.

The final section of the game has some outstanding levels.

Wet-Dry World is the third water level of the game, but this one stands out much more due to the mechanic of raising and lowering the water levels. There are different ways to move upwards depending on the water level, and you’ll need to make use of these to collect all the stars.

Tiny-Huge Island has you using pipes to swap between a giant Mario and a mini Mario. You get to see cute tiny goombas or have to fight ones that are much larger than Mario. It’s not Mario’s size that actually changes, but the level itself. It’s an absolutely adorable level full of joy.

Tick Tock Clock is actually a lot smaller than I remember, but is focused on well timed jumps. The unique aspect of this level is that the level entrance is itself a clockface, and where the minute hand points alters the speed of the objects in the level, or even stops them completely. I have quite strong memories of trying to figure out what was happening when this happened as a kid.

The final main level, Rainbow Ride, is more linear than most levels, with different segments connected via magic carpets. You’ll need to jump off the carpets to avoid obstacles, but if you take too long, the carpets will vanish. This level requires you to have learnt how to master Mario’s moveset.

Super Mario 64 is still an absolute joy to play, especially so with an updated camera. I think a full remake would alter the game too much, as the level design and movement is integral to its identity. It just needs a bit of sprucing up, and I really hope we get an official version that does this at some point.

This was an amazing start for the Nintendo 64. Not only was this game integral to the development of 3D games as a whole, but the gameplay and levels still hold up today. Games keep trying to be bigger and better, but smaller and varies levels are also a great approach.

“The best game ever?” Possibly, but then it’s so far ahead of anything that comparisons seem meaningless.

- Zy Nicholson, N64 Magazine #1

---

Remake or Remaster?

As the fan-made PC version shows, Super Mario 64 still holds up really well and just needs some basic improvements. A remastered Super Mario 64 would be perfect.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no way to buy a new copy of Super Mario 64, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak.

Other versions

2004: Super Mario 64 DS. This version featured altered levels, more stars and extra playable characters. The extra content was well received, but forcing previous stars to certain characters was frustrating. The controls also don’t work very well on the DS. The touch screen minigames were a brand new addition and were well liked.

#n64 #n64 games #nintendo 64 #super mario 64 #sm64 #mario #retro games #retro gaming #gaming #super mario #mario bros

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celticcrossanon · 1 year

Text

BRF Reading - 3rd of March 2023

This is speculation only

Cards drawn on the 1st of March, 2023

Question: When will whatever is going to happen to Camilla, happen?

This is a one card draw as a follow up to my reading on the 1st of March, which indicated that something would happen to Camilla that would cause King Charles to resign from his position.

Card Drawn: The Four of Swords.

This is a card of rest, complete and utter rest, and of withdrawal from the world. The Rider Waite card shows the tomb of a knight, so it is traditionally a death card. It can also indicate a long period of recovery from an illness or even a long and slow decline into death, for example if you have some disease or condition that will just keep eroding your health over years.

The message from this card is of the need to rest. Camilla needs to slow down and take things easily. To be blunt, she needs to go off and have a quiet retreat somewhere, like what is shown on the card, or she needs just to withdraw from public duties for a while and rest. She is pushing herself too hard and that will have disastrous consequences for her health if she is not careful.

Given that she has just had Covid for the second time and the need to rest shown on this card, I am wondering of she is going to develop what they now call "Long Covid" (it used to be CFS or ME). I have a family member with this condition and it is heartbreaking. They are so tired that all they want to do is rest, all day, everyday. You know how you feel when you have glandular fever, or when you are just starting to recover from an illness. and you are just tired and you ache all over and you can't concentrate on anything? Having CFS/ME/Long Covid is feeling like that 24/7 with no improvement, for months or years at a time. It is not a fate that I would wish on anyone, but it does fit the need to rest shown by the Four of Swords. It could be something else as well, of course - some illness or condition that means that Camilla needs to rest as much as she can.

The main energy from this card is that Camilla needs to rest. As a timing card (and I am not the best with timing), the $ of Swords can mean a number of things:

Swords are weeks, so it could mean 4 weeks from now.

Swords are associated with the season of Autumn, and we have just entered the autumn season here (March April May) - remember I am in the Southern Hemisphere, so the seasons are reversed.

Swords are Air signs, and we have just come out of Aquarius, so the next Air season is Gemini, in late May to late June.

The four swords in the card are making an eight point star, which reminds me of the eight ?fire festivals? -summer solstice, winter solstice, spring equinox, autumn equinox, candlemas, may day, lammas, and all saints/all souls. I don't know the proper names for the festivals and I have no idea how they fit into this timing wise - the natural turning of the year, perhaps, as symbolic of the natural course of a life from birth to death? - but that is something in the card which just struck me.

So the timing is a bit all over the place. As I said in the reading to which this is a follow up, if we get to the end of April with no news about Camilla I will be happy, and now if we make it to the second half of the year with no news I will be happier still. On the other hand, I doubt that Camilla would have picked out her crown for the coronation if she knew there was no chance of her attending the event. So, my conclusion is who knows, my timing skills need a lot more work, and I am going to leave this one up to the universe whilst hoping that the energy (of incapacitation or in the worst case, a long decline to death) is dissipated by being expressed in the reading and does not manifest in the real world.

Overall, the message from the cards is not one of timing but an urgent message to Camilla to rest and to keep on resting.

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berenicetheiv · 2 years

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HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR HOUSES' PERSONA CHARTS MANUALLY BECAUSE THERE'S NO WEBSITE FOR IT SO YOU HAVE TO DIY

Don't steal. Don't repost.

In astrology websites, the only houses you can make a persona chart for in a fast and easy way are, of course, the angular houses: 1st house/ascendant, 4th house/IC, 7th house/descendant and the 10th house/midheaven. But if you're as curious as me and want to know the persona chart of your 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 11th and 12th house then here's the tutorial. Mind you, it might be really tedious to some lmao. I'm gonna try my best to explain how but it might be confusing, I hope not. You just really need patience for this.

Ahh, shaking my arms, I really want to be able to explain this properly.

So first, let's discuss how persona charts are calculated in the first place. They're based on the degrees, minutes and seconds of the object itself. And then you look for the dates (AFTER YOUR BIRTHDAY) with those sun signs with the exact degree minute second of the planet/object you're looking into. Because when you look into a persona chart you'll see that that placement in the natal chart, they become the centerpoint or THE SUN, in their own persona chart.

For example you were born on March 8, 2002: you're a Pisces Sun with a Capricorn moon, you want to look into your Moon's Persona chart. Your Capricorn Moon is in 21° (degrees) 54' (minute) 10" (second) so you have to look somewhere in JANUARY 2003 (because the sun dates of Capricorn are from December 20 to January 22), look into a date in the first half of January 2003 when the Sun was in 21° Capricorn. And now, when you find it, you have to search for the exact minute and second as well.

(You can't use JANUARY 2002 because you weren't born yet DUH. When calculating persona charts, you don't use dates before the day you were born because well, common sense.)

How do you do this anyway? I used astro.com. This is the example natal/birth chart and natal moon:

So now we're going to calculate the moon persona chart ourselves, MANUALLY, WITHOUT using the persona chart function available in astro.com because you're gonna be doing this for the HOUSES which are NOT on the list of objects you can make a persona chart for.

It's all about estimating. That's what you'll keep on doing using this method so if you're not patient then don't. So now I'm estimating that the Sun was in Capricorn in 21° somewhere around January 15 and 20. I could be wrong but it's all about trial and error until you find it.

So yeah you do this:

See the degrees I highlighted with a red box?

IGNORE THAT! Don't rely on that because that is the degrees and minutes for THE ASCENDANT and NOT THE SUN. Remember that persona charts are calculated based on the SUN.

Anyways, now I click continue. And boom: I'm wrong lmfao.

Too much. That's too much. That's 24° and not 21°.

I change the date to January 12 and time to 8 am. Still wrong:

Yeah, it's 21° AND 54 minutes BUT the second is 9 and not 10 and you have TO BE EXACT. So now we're gonna start doing this: We're gonna start including the minutes and seconds in the birth data entry:

(see that? the red box. 00 is the minute and 03 is the seconds.)

I click continue:

It's still 9 seconds.

I change 00:03 to 00:04 and click continue:

And finally! Perfect!

See? You have to start including the minutes AND the seconds in the birth data entry after you find the degree because you HAVE TO BE EXACT AS HELL. You have to be exact! The EXACT TIME down to the second that the sun turned to that exact degree minute AND second in that sign!

Now we have the moon persona chart calculated manually:

(Another short example: Say you're still a pisces sun born sometime in late February 2002 with a scorpio moon in 27°. Your moon persona chart will be based somewhere in the first half of November 2002 (Not November 2001 or November 2003). I included this example because I don't want to confuse anyone because some people might think they have to base their persona charts in the next year. No, it's not like that.)

Now you have to start doing what I taught you when you want to calculate persona charts for the houses that are NOT the 1st house, 4th house, 7th house and 10th house.

The degree minutes seconds of each of the houses can be found in the Additional Tables pdf file for the chart.

That is all. Thank you for reading. I really hope you guys understand this. I'm not that good at explaining how tos but I tried my best.

#astrology #astrology houses #persona charts #persona chart #2nd house persona chart #3rd house persona chart #5th house persona chart #6th house persona chart #8th house persona chart #9th house persona chart #11th house persona chart #12th house persona chart #I TRIED MY BEST OKAY #IT'S COMPLICATED TO EXPLAIN BUT I DID WHAT I COULD #astrology notes #astrology note

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just-late-roman-republic-things · 6 months

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Hey! Do you think Servilia Caepionis was aware of Brutus and the others' plot against Caesar? I know series like Rome make her an active part in it (she holds a grudge against both Caesar & his niece Aita in the series), but I suppose the evidence isn't that strong & they made it up for the drama, but on the other side I read somewhere that in the 1st days after the assasination the conspirators used to reunite in Servilia's house so... This makes things more interesting, but, still, we can only guess? On the one hand, Caesar has been her lover for a really long time (though at that time she was involved with Cleopatra VII), on the other hand, Brutus was her son! What is your guess about Servilia's feelings and role (or lack thereof) in what happened at and after the Ides of March?

So, my best guess...

...Is that if Servilia had been involved in the Ides of March plot, we probably would've heard about it. I found no mention of her involvement in Tacitus, Suetonius, Cassius Dio, Plutarch, Velleius Paterculus or Appian, even though we know many other conspirators' names, and there were several "leaks" of the conspiracy. We have a lot of detail from this period, even about the activities of other women like Porcia and Calpurnia. Suetonius and Plutarch in particular would have jumped on a rumor like Caesar's former lover turning against him.

It's true that she tried to help Brutus and Cassius as much as she could once the assassination had happened, though. And she might've been aware of the plot, even if she didn't play a role. But that's just speculation.

#just roman asks #i actually rather enjoy looking up references for questions like this #it's like a treasure hunt!#i'm slowly accumulating a hoard of epubs for this purpose #servilia #julius caesar #ides of march #marcus brutus

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c7thetumbler · 26 days

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Quick Game Reviews March 2024

3 month combo hell yeah

I'm reusing last months banner because I got super lazy

Image taken from my switch. We fist bumped.

Splatoon 3 [Revisited] (Switch)

I previously "reviewed" this in 2022, and here were my thoughts on that:

While it doesn't break much ground in comparison to the previous game, it's definitely worth a go if you've enjoyed the first 2 entries.

Now that the DLC and a number of updates are out, I went ahead and revisited this for about a whole months worth of eveneings just to see how far it's come.

And it's doing pretty well! I"m still utter trash at pvp, but that's not stopped me from enjoying it. Additionally all of the new Salmon Run content, including Big Run, is really fun to continue grinding away at for hours on end. The level of customization the game has is great as well, and the badges being hidden is a solid way of doing achievements. Again, It's a very solid Splatoon experience and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in it, though you've probably gotten it already if you are.

That being said, it + the expansion pack are a little pricey for what you're getting, at least so far. Nintendo hasn't announced a 3rd wave of DLC, but the 1st wave consisted of just some more cosmetics and an optional hub world, which wasn't a whole lot to go off of, and the 2nd, Side Order (reviewed last month) is great but not $30 great. The game seems to be getting gameplay and Splatfest updates still at least, so I'll probably be sticking with it for a while cuz it's just a fun romp while listening to podcasts and chillin with the cat in the lap.

Image from the B3313 fandom wiki

B3313 (N64 Rom hack)

B3313 is a Mario 64 Rom Hack that thrives off of your previous experiences with SM64 and SM64DS and twists it with dream-like surreal changes and a vast degree of inception-like complexity. It is near impossible to map out its worlds, and around every corner, death, door, or even successful star you will often find yourself thrown into a completely new, slightly twisted version of somewhere you may recognize.

I had a really good time at first divng straight into it and navigating my way through the worlds, trying to maker cohesive sense of it, and managed to get ~40 stars before I got bored of it. I know there's a whole lot more there, but its fatal flaw is when you get this complex, your levels really have to be engaging or interesting in and of themselves, and most of the time they just aren't. You'll spend a lot of time running around big, empty levels looking for a silver star or red coinv, or in a lot of cases replaying the same start of a level to get to a sub area within a sub area that your previously died at only to get thrown off by the game's camera and miss a jump and then thrown back out into Peach's castle as imagine by MC Escher.

It's a fun romhack, and a lot of love was thrown into it, but as a "game" or for-fun experience it doesn't really hold up there. I would more recommend it just to see if it's something you enjoy, but prepare for some frustration and backtracking.

Image from Dreamsweeper's steam page

Dreamsweeper (Steam Demo)

I saw GirlDM (wholesome catgirl vtuber) playing this on my feed once and decided to give it a go. It's basically like if Crypt of the Necrodancer replace the music mechanics with Minesweeper instead, which I'm down for.

The core loop is good; I had a lot of fun applying Minesweeper logic in a new way, as well as the aesthetics really bringing out the comfy, lofi dream look they were really going for, so that's a huge plus. That being said, it's still got some growing to do. I'm a little confused as to how you would expand this into a full game, and sometimes the generation can just make it impossible to logic out some areas. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing; the difference between Minesweeper and a logic complete puzzle game like Sudoku is occasionally you do run into guesses. It's like dealing with real mines!

Additionally, the combat is a bit out of place. That's not to say the DDR-esque (or like Undyne from Undertale) minigame isn't good, but it doesn't really fit with the minesweeper or even dream look in and of itself, and just serves to take you out of it rather than add to it. I would've preferred something like a logic puzzle, or even another variation or callback to a different old windows pc minigame everyone had just to kinda keep it cohesive.

That being said, I enjoyed my time time with and am looking forward to seeing how they expand on it in the future!

Image from the steam page

Megaman X Dive Offline (Steam)

You get mad props in my book for turning your mobile game from a F2P gacha game to a cohesive, single-purchase experience. Even more so, when you take the servers down you release that as its own offline game so that it's accessible to anyone who may have missed out.

This was an impulse purchase alongside the Battle Network Legacy collections, and honestly? Kind of regret it. Not because the game is bad exactly, but because I realized that I don't actually like Mega Man X that much to begin with so me getting the whole deal didn't make a lot of sense. The levels are fine and the gameplay is too, however I can already tell that because of how the Gacha works it's a grindfest to get any character up to par, and there's as a result a bunch of inventory management between levels to ensure your stuff remains good. I'm glad they did it, but it exemplifies why adding mechanics that meld with microtransactions inherently makes the core experience worse and the game's not for me.

Image taken from the Sonic Triple Trouble 16 bit website

Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit (Fan game)

I saw an article that the Noah Copeland was hopping off of the Sonic Drift 16-bit project to make his own game with his own characters. His reasoning was he had two goals: Make a Sonic fan game and make his own games, and now that he had done the former with Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit, he wanted to start on the latter. That's completely fair and understandable, and I wish him the best and hope the Sonic Drift 16-bit project continues with the current devs because it looks really good!

I'd be lying if my initial reaction wasn't actually me being like "Wait, there's a really good remake of Sonic Triple Trouble?" Though.

And it is really good! It remakes Sonic Triple Trouble into a "modern" classic Sonic game w3hile adding new levels, playable characters, and layouts and expanding on the story to make it cohesive and fun. Sonic's drop dash returns from Mania, and again it really brings his moveset together and makes him the most fun character to play in my opinion. Tails is also playable at the same time as Sonic, and you can swap to him on the fly with a single button press, which is a welcome change over just having him be around. In Free play mode you can unlock 3 more characters as well, which is always fun.

Overall this is, like Mania, peak classic Sonic gameplay. This is what Sonic Superstars should've been, and its quality is higher than a lot of official Sonic releases as of late (looking at you, Origins and Forces). If you're a fan of Classic Sonic, this is a well designed and excellent experience you need to give a try! And it won't cost you a cent!

Image taken from the steam store page

Insaniquarium Deluxe (Steam)

This was a fun revisit. I Hadn't played this since way back in the day when they had the original, much more pixelated version and it was nice to revisit.

Just some quick notes on this one: PvZ definitely aged a lot better. While I appreciate that large amount of modes and variety in levels, the gameplay itself is very one note. It's addictive fore sure, but as soon as you get into the habit of it there really isn't much variety between the different tanks other than figuring out how to ramp up production.

Additionally the game has you clicking a lot, and the speed at which you can click is very much ingrained into its core mechanics. If this were made today, that would not go well given how utterly painful play sessions can get. I opted to use a mouse clicker, because I wanted to have fun and also be able to work tomorrow without dying.

All that being said, it's still a fantastic game in its own right! Sure, it's not the deepest gameplay you've ever seen, but not all games have to have deep, complex interweaving mechanics to be a grand old time. It's a great time to play for an hour or so while you're listening to a video or podcast, and honestly I recommend it for just being a fun, nostalgic clicker game. But wait for a sale.

And it's more enjoyable than cookie clicker, imo

Image from my switch

Princess Peach: Showtime!

As of the time of this writing I haven't beaten it yet, so my story & gameplay assessment may change by that time. If that does, I'll update this in my reviews next month, but I think I'm still pretty on point.

I'll go into this saying I had pretty high hopes for this one. Nintendo has a great track record when it comes to making spin-offs based off of other Mario characters; Yoshi games offer a different but still engaging platforming experience to the basic Mario platformers. Wario Land games are for the most part all great, ranging from platformers that test your wits and abilities to the iconic WL4/Shake it gameplay that would give rise to Pizza Tower. Luigi's mansion took a character whose only feature was being Green Mario and made it into a successful franchise with completely unique gameplay.

And sure, Peach has had a platformer before with Super Princess Peach. I haven't played it, but I heard it was fun. But when this game was announced I will say I was excited to see another Mario spin-off but with Peach as the leading lady.

And it's definitely not bad! I want to make sure that's clear; I don't dislike the game. It's difficult to describe the gameplay in a way that encompasses everything though. The best comparison would be a puzzle platformer but with a large amount of minigames interspersed, along with hidden collectibles all throughout the levels. To go with probably the worst possible game mashup I can think of, It's like Wario: Master of Disguise mixed with Luigi's Mansion 2 and a Spin-off Kirby game.

I will also say that I'm not the target audience for it, for sure, so I'm keeping that in mind when I say this. It's just, I'm kind of disappointed in it myself. It's not challenging, kinda like how Yoshi's Crafted World and most modern Kirby's aren't, but the gameplay isn't really engaging me enough to want to progress that frequently. Additionally most of the challenge seems to be from collecting the green sparkles scattered throughout the level, and for the most part it's not so much a skill challenge as a "Oh did you find the right part of the screen to stand on and pose" sort of thing.

The setting and story kind of irks me as well. The theatre aesthetic isn't foreign to Mario games, with Paper Mario and SMB3 even embracing it, but it feels inconsistent here. Peach is put through a variety of different plays where she assumes the main role in order to complete the stage and overcome the main antagonist: Grape and the Sour Bunch, and bring order back to the play. But it feels like they couldn't decide whether the game was trying to be like "Hey this is you actually helping people in need" and "This is all an act for your amusement", and bouncing back between those constantly and clumsily does it a disservice.

Performance wise the game's not doing so hot either. I know it's on switch, but with how smooth Mario Kart 8 DX and Splatoon 3 run, the game doesn't really have an excuse to be dropping frames. Most of the game is a fixed perspective with models made to look like theater props, but I find it's actually pretty common to see things operating at a lower framerate or stuttering. They also didn't even stick 100% with the theater aesthetic, with a lot of transitions looking almost voxel and digital in nature rather than actively moving set pieces like a performance, which is a shame because if they went all in on it it would've been cool to see them nail it like modern Paper Mario hits the paper aesthetic really well.

All in all, I'd say this a fairly decent game that has some issues finding what it's supposed to be. There's definitely fun to have here, but the variety of costumes and performances which for the most part don't mix together make the game feel like a mini-game collection more than a cohesive experience. So, it's alright, but in my opinion I'd wait for a big sale before picking it up. If you're looking for a challenge, consider this to be like a Kirby game before you buy

#splatoon 3 #sonic triple trouble #megaman x dive #Dreamsweeper #b3313 #insaniquarium #Princess peach Showtime

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thedawningofthehour · 9 months

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very important question that is very relevant to something, i promise:

whats the exact date of mikeys birthday in this au

ALSO I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY THAT IM ALMOST DONE MY FIRST READ OF THIS ENTIRE FIC AND. MAN. COMPLETELY NOT JOKING; THIS IS MY FAVOURITE TMNT FIC NOW. TYSM FOR WRITING IT.

Ɛ>

I...do not know!

I've hardly finalized anyone's birthday, lol. The twins, I kind of had to because they're the POV characters. (and also because the story kicks off right after their fifteenth birthday, but that was more of a coincidence) I know Cass's, because her birthdate would have been listed in her missing person report and it would just look weird if I left it out, and Bella's, because she was originally based on my Lone Wanderer and shares the Lone Wanderer's birthday of July 13th. (Pax was also based on a Lone Wanderer, ironically named Othello, but he was much less cool)

Mikey's birthday is somewhere around the end of November, I think like the last week or so. I definitely imagined it somewhere in the twenties. The scene where Mikey tells Leo he's older than Donnie was when he was kidnapped was originally right after the first reverse-kidnapping attempt, (and that was really the only noteworthy part of the scene, which is why I cut it) which took place on December 1st, so at least three days before that. Raph's is somewhere in July, April's is in October, (her parents thought they were being soooo funny) Splinter's is I think February because I literally forgot about and by the time I remembered almost a whole year had passed in-story and I didn't want Leo to suddenly remember they forgot his father's birthday. Draxum is older than the modern calendar and is too old to remember when his birthday is.

If your birthday is around that time, it can totally be that date! It's not like these are their actual birthdays anyway, they're just dates chosen by Splinter. If we assume the mutation happened in March 2005 the boys probably all hatched towards the end of 2004, (since turtl babies grow faster and they are all explicitly still baby turtles at mutation) and maybe Mikey in 2005 since he's the babiest.

Thank you so much for reading! 'makes heart with hands'

#doth asks

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pianostarinwonderland · 2 years

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SSR Tierlist [Part 1]

Made an SSR tierlist showcasing what is essentially my gacha history over here 😋 It’s part 1 because I made another tier list and might make a separate post about that other tier list. Note that these are all the SSRs from the JP version.

I like explaining my reasons since I enjoy sharing my thoughts, but it’s going to be pretty long. 😅 I made this in mind with both my gacha history and my perceptions on their usefulness in tests/exams.

Red Tier: Pretty much everyone in this tier came home in 50 pulls or less.

I rolled for Dorm Riddle on his very first banner back in March 2020, and I don’t fully remember how many rolls I threw at him, but I think it was somewhere around 11-14 rolls, which isn’t that bad. Birthday Riddle came home in 30 pulls!

Beans Azul is kind of a special case in the sense that I couldn’t get him in his first banner run, but in fairness, I could only afford throwing 14 rolls at him. 😂 But in the second run, he came home on the 39th roll, which is still really nice! Funny story, back then, I wasn’t an Azul stan, so I didn’t want to get him, but the groovy had me weak on the knees. 😩

Birthday Azul came home on the 46th pull. Then I went to pity for him and got two more copies then had the urge to throw a few more rolls since I could afford it and got a fourth copy. Eventually, I managed to limit break him to Lv.100 and he stands as my only Lv.100 SSR. 😂 Union Azul came home on the 50th roll exactly. I went to pity for him and got one more copy.

Dorm Floyd is the kindest one here. He came home in 8 rolls. 😭

Dorm Trey and Ortho are special in that I rolled for them during the 1st and 2nd anniversaries respectively. Trey is the exception because he came home in 80 ish pulls. The thing is, I planned to get him using the SSR key, so when I got him before getting the SSR key, I was pleasantly surprised. That’s why I’m placing him in this category. 😂 Ortho, on the other hand, came home in the first ten roll I threw when beginning my 2nd anniv rolls, and I really wanted him. 🥺

Orange Tier: Basically, the cards that I didn’t plan to pull, but it turned out that I use them a lot because they’re super useful in tests. 😭

Dorm Cater came home to me when I hit pity on the first Ghost Marriage banner. 😂 I was really hoping for Dorm Azul, and if not, at least GM Ace to say I got the event card. But I got neither LMAO but I’m really glad I got Dorm Cater because he and Dorm Trey are the best duo to have in defense tests. I’d be struggling if I didn’t have him.

Dorm Jade spooked me when I rolled on the Silver & Lilia banner back in May 2020, and that took me around less than 10 rolls, possibly even less than Dorm Floyd. Funnily enough, at the time, I was mainly a Jade stan, but I was only happy to get him because I hadn’t been getting SSRs, and he was an Octa character. I was lowkey disappointed because I really wanted Dorm Azul (more on that later). Turns out that he’s very useful to have in fire, flora, and omni tests, and he pairs well with Dorm Azul — and not to mention being a deceptive defense SSR when he can hit really hard — so I’m happy overall.

Dorm Epel spooked when I was rolling for the 1st anniversary. He came home on the 3rd roll I believe? And then he came home again when I hit pity on the anniv banner. 😂 He’s good to have for flora basic test, especially paired with Dorm Rook, and he’s part of my best fire defense team (which easily nabs me a 21k score).

Yellow-Orange Tier: They spooked me as well. 😭 But the difference is that I don’t use these SSRs in my tests as much.

Dorm Deuce spooked me twice during my Beans Floyd rolls. 😂 I actually didn’t plan on getting him because he isn’t the most useful SSR (he’s useful in fire defense, but when you have cards like Dorm Trey and Azul, you kind of shaft the poor boy 😔). But Union Floyd came, and turns out that Dorm Deuce’s water magic is really good to use paired with Floyd’s duo in fire basic, so now I have more use for Deuce. 😋

As for Halloween Vil, he came home on the first ten roll of his banner when I aimed for Halloween Azul. 😅 He’s a really good SSR for fire basic, and you can build a good team using him since both Lilia SSRs have good duo partners. I just don’t use him since I don’t have the right cards. Granted, though, my best fire basic score was when I used Dorm Riddle, Dorm Azul, Dorm Jade, Halloween Vil, and Lab Lilia (around 19.3k).

Yellow Tier: Please pretend that this is yellow, thanks. Yellow tier is the shit tier because these characters were shitheads to me. My luck may seem really awesome at first, but here is where I’ll say that it really is not.

See, when I roll to get cards that I think will be extremely beneficial for my tests, I get incredibly unlucky. Beans Floyd and Union Vil came home at the pity pull of their banners. Beans Floyd especially hurts because I got 4 SSRs (counting dupes) before getting him at pity.

Union Floyd was probably one of the most embarrassing rolls I made because I didn’t plan on rolling for any tweel (I make it a point to save for Azul’s birthday starting October), but his stats and abilities were really beneficial for the team I wanted to make to get SSS in fire basic. 😭 I tried to control myself by throwing a 10 roll for both tweels, but I caved and went to pity for Union Floyd. I did get him in my 96th roll, but it was 4 more rolls to pity, so I duped him again. I was so embarrassed that I only told select friends about it and kept quiet about it for a few months everywhere else.

Onto my two biggest offenders: GM Idia banner came out as I was coming home from a really long road trip. I wanted GM Idia for water defense since I was suffering horribly in that test, but I didn’t want to roll for him simply because of that. I told myself I’d only roll if Azul was one of his buddies or if Azul appeared in his personal story, and Twst did a fuck you and made Azul a buddy of his. 🗿 I rolled when my gut was telling me not to, and guess what? It took me 200 rolls to bring him home. 🤡 Most shameful roll, though I was a little less lowkey about it than Union Floyd because I was filled with anger. At least he’s really useful.

Dorm Azul 🤡 hoo boy, this is four months of gacha salt. On his second banner back in August 2020, he came home in the 5th roll, which seems lucky. But in his first banner four months prior, I threw 81 rolls (with one roll at the standard banner) and he did not come home. I was so confident I was gonna get him because I got Dorm Riddle and Floyd really early so I thought a 10-roll would suffice, but guess what? It didn’t. 😭 Every roll I threw at gacha banners from then on were all to have a chance of getting Dorm Azul. During Beans Azul, part of my decision to roll was the thought of ‘oh what if Dorm Azul spooked?’ Then when Dorm Jade spooked, I was sad because I wanted it to be Dorm Azul. I threw a pity at Ghost Marriage for a chance of Dorm Azul spook. So if I count all my rolls that I threw to get Azul, it would amount to at least 213 rolls. 🤡 What’s funnier is that only when I started stanning him did he come home early to me. Biggest jerk in my life, but he’s one of the best SSRs in the game, so I’m also glad to have him.

Light Green Tier: Self explanatory. Rook ruined my pities twice. When rolling for GM Idia, he was the one who stole my first pity. 🤡 Then in the 2nd anniversary, I was really aiming for Dorm Vil or Idia. When I hit the 2nd pity to get the event SSR key, I was so excited to get Dorm Vil… only to hear Rook’s voice. 🤡 Well, at least Rook is a really good SSR.

Green Tier: Also self explanatory. My tutorial SSR was supposed to be Leona, but my wifi crashed. 😂

Light Blue Tier: SSRs gotten with the SSR keys given out on anniversaries. I got Dorm Leona on the first anniversary and Halloween Jade on the second.

Blue Tier: I mainly need for meta purposes. Union Ace is mainly because I have a lot of ideas for a flora defense team using him and Union Azul. Dorm Vil is mainly because I have Dorm Leona, and they would be a really good duo for water basic. Besides, Vil is also really helpful to complete the Pomefiore trio (and they’re deadly in defense tests). Dorm Idia is mainly because he has amazing synergy with Dorm Trey, Dorm Azul, and Beans Jade for defense tests. He and Dorm Ortho are also really good for fire basic. Lastly, Halloween Silver acts like a fire version of Dorm Azul, so already based on that, he’s really good. I’d love to have him for flora defense.

Indigo Tier: So I already mentioned my GM rolls. Birthday Vil, I wanted him for his duo with Azul, and I would have continued rolling for him had Beans Day rerun not been announced. I stopped at 40 rolls to save for Beans Day. 😔 As for Birthday Lilia, I only rolled on his banner because I was out of R perfumes to buy the birthday backgrounds. 🤡 I threw only 20 rolls, and it embarrassed me because I was a dramatic ass at the time and felt like I ‘cheated’ on Azul and genuinely believed he’d come home only on pity.

Pink Tier: Not gonna explain each individual card because that is a shit ton. But basically, the SSRs I kinda want for meta solely are Halloween Cater, Birthday Cater, Camp Ruggie, New Year Kalim, Birthday Rook, and Birthday Idia. The SSRs I want only for pretty art are Halloween Riddle (also for completion’s sake since I have all Riddle cards except for him), both Jade birthday cards (his groovies are so cute 😭), and both Dorm Scarabia. The SSRs I want for both art and meta are DW Deuce, Silk Jamil, Birthday Ortho, and Union Lilia.

Purple Tier: I really don’t want Dorm Ace and Ruggie to spook me for the reason that I don’t have much use for them in tests. 🥲 Maybe I might have some use for Dorm Ace with Union Azul, but Ruggie, not so much. 😭 It doesn’t help that I’m not a big fan of their art either. Separating them from the last tier because these two cards are permanent cards and therefore always have a chance at spooking.

White Tier: Self explanatory. I think some of you might murder me for putting FG Leona in this tier, but I’m not a big fan of the card. 😅 I do acknowledge that FG Leona, Halloween Rook, Birthday and Apple Boa Epel, and Union Malleus may be pretty useful for meta, but I don’t have an immediate need for them.

Anyway, that’s it for my ramble. I really like doing this tier list, so if you want me to rank the SSRs based on favorite art and other things, I’d be happy to do it! Feel free to do it too, and feel free to share me your results. 🥺

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst jp

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